Day 1. Easy first day. We left our car at the South Lake parking lot around 1 pm and we had a shuttle service drive us to the Lamarck Col trailhead past North Lake. Caught some nice brookies at Upper Lamarck Lake. We hiked up to a point about 1 mile from the Col, where we decided to stop for the day. We brought precooked, frozen NY steaks with us and reheated them on the jetboil pan for dinner with mashed potatoes. These were excellent and this will probably be our new norm for the first night’s dinner.
Day 2. Everyday seemed to have some kind of unknown issue we knew that we would have to deal with to get to our next destination each day. Today’s unknown was the snow field that we would have cross to go over Lamarck col. We followed faint boot tracks that went straight up for most of the climb and then followed other tracks that traversed from there to the top.
The views to the south and west on the other side of the Col were amazing!
Mt. Darwin and Mt. Mendel
Darwin Canyon
The bouldering down the west side of the Col and along the north side of the lakes was not bad.
Looking back up the west side of the Col.We set up camp between two of the lakes and fished at the lakes for the rest of the day. Fishing wasn’t fast and furious but we did manage to catch enough for fish tacos.
We saw this coyote near our camp. Later we saw him again leaving the area with a huge fish in his mouth.
Day 3. The hurdle for day 3 was the two snow fields that would need to be crossed on the north side of the two last lakes in Darwin Canyon. The second snow field looked too steep and icy in the morning so we decided to exit the canyon by bouldering the last two lakes on the south side.
This the snow field on the last of the Darwin Canyon lakes.
We then waltzed through the wonderful Darwin Bench and were treated to some excellent views.
We stopped for a quick rest at Evolution Lake and then crossed the boulders without getting wet at the inlet to the lake.
The hike up to Wanda Lake past Sapphire Lake was amazing.
It was about 5 pm when we pulled into Wanda Lake so we decided it was time to stop for the night.
Muir Hut and the Black Giant
Day 4. The unknown for this day was the route conditions that we would run into going up and over Davis Lake Pass. We got off to an early start on our off trail journey to Davis Lake going over Davis Lake Pass. The route up and down the pass and then along the southwest shores of the lake was mostly boulders.
Morning at Wanda
We were able to avoid these suncups on the east side of the pass
View of pass looking back from west to east
Views of Davis Lake coming down the west side of the pass
We set up camp at Davis Lake and fished the rest of the afternoon and again enjoyed some great fish tacos for dinner.
Blue Moon afternoon.
Day 5. The unknown for this day was the snow and water crossing conditions on the south side of Muir Pass. We made the return journey back over Davis Lake Pass to Wanda Lake and the headed south on the JMT to Muir Hut. We visited with a couple of Pct’rs at the hut and gave them some extra food to help keep them going. They had finished their PCT hike in Canada and had now returned to complete their missing section. They were hiking over 20 miles per day. Pretty amazing.
Morning at Davis Lake
Posing marmot
The south side of Muir Pass for the first few miles was still snow covered, wet and included numerous wet creek crossings. We kept hiking down the JMT with wet boots to shorten the hike the next day and finally found a campsite in the trees along Middle Fork of the Kings River. The mosquitoes were bad so we hunkered down in our tents until dark so we could eat after the little devils went to bed.
Day 6. The unknown for this day was the damaged Dusy Creek wooden footbridge. We made the hike down to the La Conte ranger station by lunch time.
I believe Hester Lake is in the bowl where the tree lines ends between the two peaks. Keep reading regarding Hester Lake.
We found the damaged wooden footbridge to be quite sturdy still and so we crossed it without any hesitation. The south end of the bridge’s 4 I-beam anchors are no longer attached. The north end is ok.
South end of bridge
You can see the one of the twisted I-beams in this picture.
The views heading up to our camp area in Dusy Basin were great.
We fished without success and then had a late dinner again due to the pesky mosquitoes.
Moon rising.
Day 7. We made it over Bishop Pass early and kept hiking quickly to try to get to Bishop for our traditional celebratory brisket lunch.
Morning in Dusy Basin.
Just before reaching the South Lake parking lot we stopped and talked to two hikers with huge packs and fins. They were heading to Hester Lake to skin dive and photograph the B-24 military aircraft that crashed in 1943 into the bottom of the lake.
Still some avoidable snow on the north side of Bishop Pass
Here are the trip stats that we recounted during the brisket lunch.
Here are fish pics. We caught a few 14 inchers!
Hope you all enjoy the pictures from this awesome part of the Sierra and see you again next summer.
